The release of the “ spiritually perfect” seven was healing. That twenty first day on the calendar, that I had begun to dread, turned out to be wonderful. It put me on a high that continued for several days. As I stood by Sicily's spot of land with the butterflies patiently awaiting their freedom, I read a couple of short passages I had prepared for the occasion: (I apologize that it is a little long. I truly am a windbag!)

"We were gifted this butterfly kit from a friend...the mother of a little boy who also passed away from Wilm's Tumor last year. I had to send off for the larvae, or caterpillars, and was able to request when I would like to have them delivered. I wrote down on the little postcard, July 6th. July 6th came and went, as did the rest of the week with no delivery of the larvae. I decided not to worry too much about not being able to “raise” our own butterflies as we were enjoying the addition of a beautiful black, yellow and blue winged visitor in our backyard.

Monday, July 12th, I went to check the mail and found a small brown box sitting in our mailbox. I knew immediately what the contents of this box contained. I opened it quickly to find two clear plastic cups with white lids and a mess of unrecognizable stuff inside. The kids and I studied it for awhile, then placed the cups high up on the roll top desk above the computer in our home office. Hopefully, a safe distance from our curious cat, as well as a convenient location to keep them under surveillance. By Friday afternoon, to our huge surprise, a couple of the cocoons seemed to have been vacated. We rushed to set up the net covered laundry shaped basket that would serve as their habitat until we could release them.

Over the next day and a half, a total of eight winged insects escaped the confines of their cocoons, but only seven became viable to fly. We were expecting to observe their metamorphosis for a few weeks instead of a few days. It became apparent to us that we would have to plan their release date a.s.a.p. My heart filled with happiness, as well as an understanding of God's plan, when I looked at the calendar to see the date of July 21st right around the corner. This is the number on the calendar that I found myself dreading each month. The number that seemed to take the wind out of my sails every time it came about. But not this time. For on July 21st, the four month anniversary of Sicily's passing, we were going to get to release seven butterflies at her grave site!

"I believe it is no coincidence that we are getting to release seven butterflies. The number seven is known as the number of spiritual perfection. In Hebrew, it means to be full; satisfied; to have enough. There are seven colors in the spectrum of a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). There are seven notes on a musical scale (do, re, me, fa, so, la, te). There are seven days in a week, seven continents on earth...what I'm trying to say is that the importance of the number seven is relevant here. I had hoped more butterflies would emerge but learned that seven of them is what God had intended. These seven are sufficient! They are all we need!

"I have grown to love the symbolism of the butterfly for so many reasons. They symbolize change and new life. My favorite representation is the comparison applied to the stages of a butterflies transformation and that of our own lives. The butterfly starts out as an egg, as we begin life from the womb. The soon-to-be butterfly then takes on its first major change into a caterpillar, in which it feeds and sleeps and grows. This is our life through adulthood. It is then wrapped in the chrysalis or cocoon where life does not seem to be present. This is our body when we die. But the butterflies life, the life it worked so hard to create, is not over. The best is yet to come. Soon it begins to break free from the physical bindings and spreads its wings to takes flight. This is our soul when it is released from our physical bodies and enters into heaven where we have eternal life. This is why in many cultures, the butterfly represents the soul."

“Butterflies beckon us to keep our faith as we undergo transitions in our lives!”

“The butterfly counts not months, but in moments and has time enough.” Unknown

I will sign off for now. The next two days will consist of running kids to pick up their schedules and hunting down school supplies. They start on August 12th...I think it stinks! I am not ready to face an empty house again, but plan on working on my time management skills which will include blocking off time during the day to work on THE BOOK! I am a little ready for some sort of schedule that having the kids in school forces me into! I mentally have a full agenda of things I'd like to do and accomplish, but will allow for a little deviance! I'm no fun if I have to be rigid...and if I'm not allowed some fun, well, let's just not try that! ; )